Louis Moreau Gottschalk's first masterwork, Bamboula, Op. 2/RO 20, was written in the French town of Clermont-sur-l'Oise in 1848. Gottschalk was then only 19 years of age and an aspiring pianist who'd been sent overseas to study with European virtuosi. Already by this time Gottschalk had achieved some notoriety through his remarkable flair for the keyboard and his "savage" American origins. However, the bloody Paris Revolution of 1848 forced Gottschalk to flee, and a kindly psychiatrist, Dr. Eugene Woillez who was head of a large sanatorium located in Clermont-sur-l'Oise, offered safe haven. Woillez was a utopian idealist, and his mental institution was like a country club compared to the harsh conditions found in psychiatric facilities elsewhere. Here, Gottschalk was able to wait out the Revolution, practice, and compose in peace, and he produced a large number of works, including the first two pieces in his so-called "Louisiana Quartet," Bamboula and La savane.

Gottschalk's sister, Clara Gottschalk Peterson, left a firsthand account of the composition of Bamboula in her memoirs. Moreau, taken ill with the typhus then raging in Paris "was seen to wave his hands, which those around him supposed to be symptoms of the delirium. But during his convalescence he one day got up and wrote out Bamboula, which he said had been running in his brain during his illness." With Gottschalk's return to Parisian concert circles, Bamboula was unleashed upon a Paris that was fixated on all things American, and the piece was an immediate sensation throughout Europe. Bamboula is based on a Creole melody "Quan' patate la cuite," basically meaning "barbecued potatoes," set in a highly syncopated fashion with a heavy emphasis on the downbeat. The minor melody used for contrast in the third strain is one of Gottschalk's most inspired and memorable creations.

The first performance of Bamboula took place at Gottschalk's debut at the Salle Pleyel in Paris on April 17, 1849. Bamboula's first print appearance followed in the April 22, 1849, issue of La France Musicale. Bamboula's African-Caribbean orientation is unmistakable, and practically unprecedented in the annals of concert music; the very name "Bamboula" is taken from a drum of African-Caribbean origin. This has led some commentators to speculate that Bamboula represents Gottschalk's alleged first-hand memories of the African slave dances held in Congo Square, New Orleans, in the 1830s. There is no evidence that Gottschalk ever witnessed these dances in person, and it is more likely that he picked up the tune within his own family (his mother was Creole). However, with Bamboula, Gottschalk helped set in motion the forces that led to the evolution of the African-American strain in nineteenth century music, resulting in ragtime beginning in the 1890s.

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